Of course people can post whatever they like to Steem, but the rewards really ought to bear some relation to what people think of those posts. I expect these would have a very limited interest and it doesn't look like they were getting much interaction. They probably hoped to stay under the radar and collect a few dollars for no real work. Of course it all reduces what others can make from real effort and so it is valid to flag in my opinion.
Meanwhile there are others who get away with worse because they can threaten serious retaliation. The whales let that happen :(
Will HF21 make this behaviour less attractive? I don't fully understand the consequences.
I calculated the net profit since account creation for one of these bots. It seems to be running very deep into the red. So it seems like this type of abuse should not exist because it just isn't profitable long term. The only way that it would have been profitable is if this bot account would have been owned by one of the bidbot owners.
That's actually a pretty disturbing theory when you think about it. The idea that bot owners creating fake customer account to abuse and making it appear they are getting more business than they really are and/or securing their delegator payouts somehow.
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I only checked this for one bot. So I wouldn't consider it sufficient evidence for anything. I will check the other bots at another time. It requires a bit of manual stuff since there are bitbots and an abuse-network from which funds are received or sent.
People get so upset over rewards. Steem still remains the best data chain in existence. You can do so much more than just social media.
MOST disturbing.
But it is the most (only?) rational explanation
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It could just be plain old incompetence :P
I realised yesterday that there is a fairly easy way to check if a bidbot owner is performing some kind of ROI-control by using an automised Alt account. The bid placed by the Alt account would have to be placed after most of the bids have been placed. This is checkable.
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So the vote sellers just get bigger. It does seem the margins are low for those buying the votes and some make a loss. Some could make more with real engagement, but they keep on the vote buying path even when it earns them flags.
Thanks for the update.
That's too bad, because I am actually interested in posts like this. Forwarding to Steem is kinda useful to me, even if it isn't human moderated content.
I'd prolly have followed these accounts if they weren't buying votes. Since that's not generating profits (even without being flagged) it seems likely they'll be abandoned soon. That makes me kinda sad.
Thanks!
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